Her Last Stand
by Crimson-Tears14
Summary: (Formerly You Killed the Sakura we Know) Eight years after the 4th Shinobi war and a nation is left broken. No one more so than the ANBU Captain cherry blossom, drowning in her ghosts of war. But when Sasuke returns to the rebuilt village, thirteen years after he left will she accept him with open arms? Or will that only push her over the icy edge...
1. Quiet

**Note/: This is a rewrite of my 2008 awful, cringe worthy and VERY badly written fic: You Killed The Sakura We Know. It will be the same concept of the fist fic for all you long time readers but set in a different time period and a LOT better written! **

**I do not own Naruto! **

**Sakura centric. **

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Winter is lifeless.

Cold.

Quiet.

And white.

Nothing moved, everything still...the world finally at an end.

They had won, but it didn't feel like winning.

Millions were dead.

Millions had been resurrected only to be killed again.

The 4th Great Shinobi War... but in the end what was it really all for?

Kakashi was dead by Obito's hand, as was Tsunade.

Kabuto was dead by Sasuke's hand, so thus was Orochimaru.

And Naruto;

Naruto stopped the Sage of the Six Paths within an inch of his life and at the cost of the Kyuubi, leading a broken nation back home to rebuild and recover.

But what of Sakura?

She was there, like she has always been there.

A splash of pink against the white.

Cold.

Quiet.

The war wouldn't have been won if it wasn't for Sakura.

Yet she was the one who lost the most.

Every failed life-saving field operation.

Every man who died because of her chakra exhaustion.

She lost them all.

She always lost them all.

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	2. Cold

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Delicate white snowflakes drifted through the ever still air, swirling gracefully to the ground.

The same lifeless ground that on so much blood was spilt, almost eight years ago now.

Eight long years...

A long exhale and slight shift in posture was the only disturbance in the broken white world around.

Had it really been eight years?

A lone figure cloaked in white slowly raised a pale hand to rest on the carved stone in front of her.

The greenish stone was cold to touch, but the cold had long since numbed her soul.

Timelessly the figure stood there, almost invisible among the white blanket around her.

Two emerald eyes pierced through the shadows of her cowl, studying the many names carved into that stone.

The names of people she had lost.

She closed her eyes in regret.

Rising after a moment's pause, Sakura Haruno drew back her fur hood letting her pink locks cascade down her back, instantly creating a stark contrast to the world around her.

There was colour in the world once more.

She cast one last glance at the memorial stone with dead eyes, before disappearing in a swirl of cherry blossoms. She was already three hours late for a meeting with her Hokage.

'Old habits die hard, ne Kakashi?' A soft voice whispered into the growing wind.

It was starting to snow again.

This was the Fire Country.

It never used to snow.

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	3. Closer

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A silent swirl of cherry blossoms appeared outside the Hokage's office door.

To the quiet ninja rushing down the corridors doing their errands it was obvious; Sakura was here.

Said woman extended a pale hand to knock once on the wooden door before her, pausing slightly before entering.

The Hokage's office looked much like how it used to, bookshelves lining the walls, large open windows to look over the village and one sturdy desk at the back, over flowing with paperwork.

She could see it now: Tsunade raging drunk and throwing scrolls and books at a Tonton clutching Shizune who gave back as good as she got whilst hiding all the Godamie's sake.

The thought almost made Sakura smile.

Almost.

Instead a younger blonde sat behind the desk now, or rather with his head on the desk snoring lightly.

Naruto.

He was her only teammate left, the only thing anchoring her to the pitiful remnants of what was once a great nation. He was the only one that kept her sane.

"Naruto," Sakura spoke softly but forcefully in a voice that used in different circumstances would make lesser ninja cry.

"Hmm...huh? Oh...I'M AWAKE!" Said blonde rambled and shot bolt upright in his seat, cerulean eyes wide and blinking.

A few years ago that would have made Sakura smile.

The Rokudaime Hokage's eyes found the pink woman in his office and sighed, taking in her pale form.

She was clad head to toe in her iconic white cloak with the fur of a snow fox on her hood. Although not visible from her cloak, Naruto knew for a fact that underneath the deceptively innocent fabric, Sakura wore her deadly ANBU uniform.

She never wore anything else anymore.

Naruto sighed as he studied the female Sannin intently. She had changed so much over the past thirteen years and the last war was her undoing. The Hokage had long since decided that it all started when Sasuke left. Their teammate.

Their friend.

Whilst he was off chasing Sasuke, once again Sakura was left behind, like she always had been. The weak third member of Team 7.

But no longer.

Naruto was so proud of how far she had come. She was now a seasoned ANBU Captain, his best in fact, undoubtedly the strongest kunoichi in the village and surpassed Tsunade's title as top Medic-Nin in the world.

But somehow along the way, she had lost herself.

Naruto didn't know how, or when Konoha's cherry blossom wilted but what he did know was that the twenty-five year old woman before him was no longer the bubbly, happy go lucky girl he grew up with.

The Sakura he knew was dead.

Said woman waited quietly for the Hokage to finish his inner musings, watching the vivid emotions flicker across his cerulean orbs with a lifeless expression.

"Sakura..." Naruto started, dropping all professionalism like he always did around his friend.

"Yes Hokage?" Was the ever formal reply.

Naruto sighed.

"Sakura please, it's me, Naruto. Drop the Hokage shit." The blond man sighed again and rubbed his temples. Something was bothering him greatly, the pink woman could tell.

There was a pause.

Then a sigh.

"What's wrong Naruto?" Sakura relented, leaking some softness into her trained voice.

"Sasuke's been sighted near the outskirts of the village again."

The pinkette recoiled back ever so slightly. She would never admit it, but that damned name still brought her a pang of pain.

They honestly thought he would come back with them after the war, so they could finally be a team again.

They were wrong.

After killing Kabuto, Sasuke slunk back into the shadows in which he was so used to hiding never to be seen for the next six years.

It broke Naruto's heart.

But it broke Sakura even more.

But, he was still their teammate. They were still the Three Legendary Sannin. So it was Naruto's duty to inform Sakura of his movement, even if she did not wish to hear it.

"His sightings have been getting erratic over the last two years, but one thing is for sure..." Naruto spoke again, keeping his voice deceptively level.

"What is that?" Sakura answered softly in return, eyes hard already knowing the answer.

"He's getting closer."

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	4. Lights

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Dawn had broken casting a halo of fiery shades across the sky above Konoha. Orange and gold reflected of the newly sculpted Hokage Mountain, basking the stone faces in warmth – almost as if the sun could touch their skin once more.

But they were long dead.

Just like everyone else.

Sakura sighed softly as she sat on top of Tsunade's stone locks. Another mission completed. Another target dead. All that was left to do was to submit the mission report to Naruto, receive payment and then be briefed on the next mission.

It was a vicious circle.

A deadly, bloody vicious circle of infiltrating, killing and reporting that had now become her life. But wasn't that the life of all Ninja? To take on missions for the sake of the Village. Her eyes glinted dangerously from beneath her snow fox cowl dangerously at that thought.

Sakura let out a dark short laugh which sounded so strange against the oppressive silence around her.

What Village? Konoha was nothing like how it used to be.

Sighing she crossed her legs more comfortably and closed her eyes, letting her senses spread out across the village.

She used to do this training with Kakashi before the war. Quiet meditation used to expand their range of chakra sensing. He used to meet her on this very mountain with a familiar eye crinkling smile and a casual wave. Then when they were done he used to pat her on the head affectionately just like when she was twelve.

Her heart gave a painful pang and Sakura screwed her eyes even more tightly shut.

Kakashi...

Kami...how she missed her old Sensei.

The woman mentally slapped herself and forced herself to concentrate on the task at hand. She was an ANBU operative, not some mewling child anymore. Emotions got in the way of missions. They made her weak.

She exhaled softly and felt the morning sun warm up her cold skin and melt the light snow around. She could sense every living thing in the background of her mind. Soft flickering chakra signatures like stars in the sky, some were dim and barely noticeable, others were bright beacons of light and some were hidden in the darkness, like hers, masking their chakra out of habit from the war.

Naruto's was by far the brightest. A fireball of light encased in the Hokage's tower, bright and flickering which meant he was awake and alert.

Sakura smiled to herself. She didn't know what she would do if it wasn't for Naruto.

She swept the village once more, noticing a rather large gathering of signatures at the main gate out of the village but Sakura dismissed it as a goodbye party to a team leaving on a mission.

She reined her mind in and slowly opened her emerald eyes to survey the village with her own eyes. The quiet streets seemed a little fuller than before and peaceful atmosphere of the village seemed to be broken.

Just then she felt Naruto's chakra spike dangerously high.

And in a swirl of cherry blossoms Sakura was instantly outside his office door.

As she raised a pale hand to rap on the wooden door she heard Naruto shouting in anger and distress.

Something was very wrong.

Snapping her ANBU wolf mask on her face properly in case of enemy infiltration, who in that case had masked their chakra expertly; Sakura drained all emotion from her mind and was instantly the efficient and cold assassin Konoha sent on missions.

Striding quickly and forcefully into the room she stopped dead at the wooden desk, frozen to the spot.

To any other ninja she was completely unrecognizable. Under her long white cloak with the snow fox cowl the only parts of her body that could be seen were her black gloved hands, black boots and her iconic wolf's mask which bared its red painted teeth in a menacing snarl.

Her trained face drained of colour behind the safety of her mask emerald orbs met the scene of her best friend stood up right next to his fallen chair with his fists clenched and eyes wide staring to her left.

Sakura's heart clenched and something in her dropped voiding her of all emotion. She knew exactly who was besides her, yet she dare not look. Her eyes hardened as she stared intently at her Hokage.

Naruto seemed to be frozen mid-shout too, cerulean eyes snapping to the ANBU in worry, watching her every move as if she was an unpredictable animal ready to lash out with any sudden movement.

Very slowly, the woman reached inside her cloak and pulled out a small scroll with a red ribbon, placing it gently on the Hokage's desk.

"Mission Report: Mission Success." She spoke in a deep cold voice, staring at the Hokage intently as she tried and failed to stop a trickle of intense killing intent seep into the room.

There was a tense pause in the office as everyone seemed to assess the other for the first move.

Naruto's mouth hung open but no words seemed to come out, still staring wide eyed at the only woman in the room. Their eyes met for a brief second and ever so slightly Sakura nodded her hooded head.

Sakura hardened her resolve with one last hard look at Naruto, before mustering all her inner strength and courage to tear her eyes away from cerulean to lock with obsidian.

Her heart clenched so hard it must have exploded.

Because there, stood beside her was Sasuke Uchiha.


End file.
